


start to fall but then you rise

by cashewdani



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-14
Updated: 2011-04-14
Packaged: 2017-11-05 08:16:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/404271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashewdani/pseuds/cashewdani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So, this is Lot 48,” she tells him</p>
            </blockquote>





	start to fall but then you rise

**Author's Note:**

> Written for fairytiger with the prompt, "Lot 48"

“So, this is Lot 48,” she tells him, after they get out of a town meeting about it, and there’s a strange mixture of pride and disappointment in her voice. Ben knows it was a pit, but that it’s supposed to be a park already, filled with teenagers trying to make out in the shadows now that it’s long past dusk.

“It’s nice,” he says, because what are you supposed to say about a flat piece of earth with a fence around it.

She assures him, “It’s going to be my legacy,” and she’s so earnest and determined and it always makes him feel out of his element, this childish enthusiasm and faith she puts into everything. Of course I can save the town and organize an event thousands of people will attend and get up he next day ready to hit the ground running, never settling like that was enough. “Do you want me to show you around?”

And he’s going to laugh because he’s a terrible person but then she slips her hand into his, and her touch is warm and he doesn’t feel like it’s a joke any more.

“This is where we’re going to put the swings and I’d really like for there to be at least three slides, but I can be flexible on that in exchange for a teeter-totter.”

“Of course,” he says, because in her mind that’s an appropriate response, he can tell.

“And I want a sandbox if we can figure out a way to keep the feral cats from using it as a litter box.”

“What about a sprinkler?” Ben can remember running through the sprinkler as a kid, the cement hot on his feet.

She sighs. “The raccoons like to bathe in them.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah.”

And that’s when he realizes he’s standing in the middle of a dirt field in the moonlight, holding hands with a powerful woman who knows what she wants and goes after it.

She’s brave, more than anything. Brave in a way he hasn’t felt since he was 18 and he’s scared standing here, knowing that if he tries to kiss her it’s going to change everything.

But Leslie would say some nicer version of Fuck it and kiss him.

So, that’s what Ben does, and he swears he can feel the confidence to do anything swell up inside of him as Leslie squeeze his hand.


End file.
